I'll start this review by saying that I've never been on a cruise before. My brother and sister-in-law has cruised on Royal Caribbean before and always praised it, but given that one of those enormous ships are quite a world away from the MS Volendam, I was essentially taking a fresh look. Plus we weren't sure if we'd enjoy it (the wife and I). I used to work for the NAAFI aboard HMS Albion and Bulwark, and so I've been to sea for extended periods (longest was over six weeks at a time), but the wife had never been aboard before.

So we got all prepped and pre-ordered two soda cards prior to boarding as neither of us drink. After asking around on the Facebook page we boarded just after midday last Wednesday and had a very pleasant experience boarding - we were even recommended the bread pudding during the boarding - I'm sure any HAL regular would agree with!

We got to our cabin, 1858 down on the Dolphin Deck. Now I can't praise that cabin enough - everything worked fine, only had some minor issues with our moronic neighbours that left an alarm clock going off in the early hours of the morning while they weren't in the room (but we called the front office and they sent someone up who entered the room and turned the alarm off), and the occasion sound of thrash metal coming through the wall - but nothing I can hold to HAL! Read more